Category: Newcastle News

A woman will face court today charged with alleged ongoing drug supply in the Hunter region.
Officers from Hunter Valley Police District established Strike Force Lirki to investigate the death of a 36-year-old man at Cessnock on 25 September 2018.
A 34-year-old man was charged over the death and remains before the courts.
During the course of the investigation, detectives received information about the ongoing supply of methylamphetamine and cannabis in the Hunter region.
Following extensive inquiries, strike force detectives arrested a 33-year-old woman at a facility at Silverwater about 12pm on Thursday (2 July 2020).
She was charged with three counts of supply prohibited drug on an ongoing basis and one count of supply indictable quantity of prohibited drug.
The woman was remanded in custody to appear at Newcastle Local Court today (Wednesday 15 July 2020).
 

A missing Lake Macquarie man has been located safe and well.
The 59-year-old Macquarie Hills man was reported missing this morning by members of his family.
About 5pm today (Wednesday 15 July 2020), the man was located in Cronulla.
Police would like to thank the public and the media for their assistance.

A bird’s eye view of all development applications in Newcastle is now available online via an interactive aerial map on the City’s website.
The map makes it easy for residents and interested parties to access information about current development applications (DAs), modifications, reviews and complying development certificates (CDCs), as well as all development determinations made in the 12 months prior.
Development locations are marked on a Google Earth-style map with a pin showing properties, street names, suburbs and local landmarks.
The coloured markers represent applications on exhibition (yellow), pending applications (blue) and those approved (green) or refused (red) in the past 12 months.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the map was a great way to see what development was underway in any part of the city.
“The map is a great convenience for residents and customers who previously had to search individual properties or streets on our website to obtain a list of proposed or approved developments,” the Lord Mayor said.
“For the first time, Novocastrians can, from the convenience of their phone or computer, scroll through an aerial map of developments across the city and see what’s happening and where.
“Users can also link to our development application tracker via the “more info” option when they scroll down in the pop-up box, which links to relevant documents, plans and application details.”
The map’s launch comes amid marginally increased development activity across Newcastle, despite the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City received six more development applications in the three months from March (332) than it did during the corresponding period last year (326).
“The number of development applications being lodged with the City of Newcastle this year is consistent with last year, including through the period since COVID-19 started to impact the economy,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Development applications for the three months were worth $141 million, which is estimated to sustain up to 830 local jobs.
“This indicates that there continues to be opportunities in the construction sector in Newcastle with a mix of development types – the majority on existing sites or home improvements.
“The HomeBuilder program, which is offering $25,000 to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing one, may create further opportunities for the construction industry in Newcastle over the coming six to 12 months.”

City of Newcastle has implemented safety precautions ahead of an east coast low forecast to build today and tomorrow.
The low-pressure system is expected to linger off the coast Tuesday and Wednesday with potential for heavy rain, strong winds and large waves which will pose risks along Newcastle’s coastline.
Surf and swell conditions are expected to be hazardous for swimming, surfing and rock fishing for all beaches and both ocean baths starting Tuesday until Friday.
City of Newcastle will prepare and monitor its coastal facilities and assets along the Newcastle coastline including areas in Stockton which may be impacted by coastal erosion.
Beach accessways in Stockton will be closed and current traffic controls in place at Barrie Crescent and Mitchell Street will be reinforced. Road closures at Barrie Crescent, Mitchell Street, Stone Street Corner and Griffiths Road may be implemented depending on weather conditions.
The City of Newcastle asks the community to follow all safety warnings, to abide by all road closures and to drive safely in the forecast extreme weather conditions.
Coastal erosion can change beach conditions dramatically and quickly. This can lead to sand cliff collapses without warning.
To stay up to date on the weather warnings, please follow the Bureau of Meteorology www.bom.gov.au, and for emergencies, the State Emergency Service at www.ses.nsw.gov.au  or phone 13 25 00.

Newcastle small business workers now have access to free accredited online training as part of an initiative of City of Newcastle delivered through TAFE NSW, the University of Newcastle and Novaskill.
The training packages include a focus on customer behaviour, digital and social media marketing, management and finance, and are part of the City of Newcastle’s response to the economic impact of COVID-19.
Training on business innovation and growth, community engagement, and leadership skills is also covered within the 14 online programs being offered.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said Newcastle’s business community had been hit hard by the pandemic and the prolonged period of slower economic activity that had followed.
“The small business sector has been required to adapt quickly in order to survive the unprecedented effects of COVID-19 on our community,” the Lord Mayor said.
“This training is targeted at providing local businesses and their staff with an ongoing benefit during the recovery phase and beyond, as the economy returns to a ‘new normal’ state.
“By upskilling our local workforce and empowering people to learn, we can help provide a sense of positivity and support for the business community as they work to recover from this period of extraordinary economic and social disruption.”
Enrolments are now open at the three participating training organisations for anyone who works for a business within the Newcastle local government area that employs 20 staff or less.
Each ‘student’ is eligible to undertake one of the training packages, which are scheduled to be fully delivered by the end of November.
TAFE NSW Regional General Manager Jason Darney congratulated City of Newcastle for incorporating accredited training into the Community and Economic Resilience Package, which will provide meaningful professional development for small business employees.
“TAFE NSW short courses are perfect for training small business professionals in vital skills, which can be applied immediately to improve business functions,” Mr Darney said.
“The customised program of short courses support the specific needs of small businesses moving forward in the recovery phase of COVID-19.”
University of Newcastle Pro Vice-Chancellor, Business and Law, Professor Tony Travaglione said the City of Newcastle initiative aligned with a top engagement priority for the University, which was to respond to challenges in our regions and beyond.
“As the University for our region, any opportunity to help our community respond to the challenges brought about by COVID-19 is a high priority for us. The University of Newcastle is one of the top 200 universities in the world, so this is a great opportunity for businesses to access free world-class education to help support their recovery.”
Amanda Saunders, Novaskill’s General Manager, said the organisation was ready to help support local businesses as part of City of Newcastle’s package.
“It’s important for providers like Novaskill, who are specialist at responding to small business training needs, to be ready and able to support our community through such difficult times,” Ms Saunders said.
“By offering Newcastle business owners and their staff meaningful development opportunities for the future, we are creating ways to keep everyone engaged and prepared for navigating the ‘new normal’ we are all now facing.”
More information, including instructions on how to register interest in the training, can also be found on the City of Newcastle website www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au.

An investigation is underway following a suspicious house fire in the state’s Hunter region this morning.
About 3.30am (Thursday 9 July 2020), emergency services were called to a house on Hart Road, Loxford, following reports of a fire.
Fire and Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze.
The house was vacant at the time and no injuries were reported.
Officers attached to Hunter Valley Police District established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Initial investigations suggest the fire may have been deliberately lit.
Investigators are appealing for anyone with information to contact police.

MEETING OF THE CITY TASKFORCE
The City Taskforce, a collaboration of 17 leading organisations and employers, chaired by Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes City of Newcastle, held its fifth meeting today via Zoom. The Taskforce was formed to develop a collaborative approach to the City’s response to COVID-19, from crisis to recovery and beyond. City leaders focused their discussion on the second edition of The Newcastle Response, highlighting significant impacts to the tourism sector, as well as commercial rental vacancies across the city and eroded business confidence in the context of further job losses and economic impacts as a result of COVID-19.
The Newcastle Response – Tourism Sector 
City leaders endorsed the second Newcastle Response, which provides local insights on one of the industries hardest hit by COVID-19: tourism. Developed in collaboration with representatives of Newcastle Airport and Alloggio, and supported unanimously today by the City Taskforce, the document recognises the valuable contribution the tourism sector makes to the city’s vibrancy and its role in sustaining local jobs. It calls upon State and Federal decision-makers to:

• Support an interstate destination marketing campaign for Greater Newcastle, as submitted by Newcastle Airport and partners in June 2020.
• List Newcastle as a destination independent of the North Coast on Destination NSW’s websites.
• Make available additional tourism product development training from Destination NSW, and pilot new training through the NSW First Program in Newcastle in 2020/21.
• Advocate for the reversal of about 200 Hunter Jetstar job losses, including 112 stemming from the closure of Newcastle’s Jetstar maintenance base.

The Taskforce also recognised the need for JobKeeper to be extended or alternative targeted support measures to be introduced for tourism businesses and other sectors that are “on ice”. Despite some restrictions easing, discretionary spending is down 58% at pubs and venues and 34% on travel compared to baseline levels. Among those travel and accommodation services suffering the biggest downturn are those that derive their revenue from regional, interstate and international travellers due to ongoing border closures.
Commercial rental vacancies erode business confidence 
The Taskforce heard how commercial rental vacancies across Newcastle had significantly increased from February to June, changing the city’s streetscape and eroding business confidence – an issue not localised to Newcastle, but which can be seen around the world as a result of COVID-19.
City leaders raised the concept of applying the Renew Newcastle model more broadly to redevelop and revitalise commercial precincts and the city’s overall amenity in parallel with discussions with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment around zoning and the night-time economy. Leaders agreed to workshop this further with key members of the City Taskforce, including the Hunter Business Chamber, Colliers International, Alloggio and Independent Creative Alliance Newcastle.
The Newcastle Response – Tourism Sector also advocates for the extension of the Retail and Other Commercial Leases (COVID-19) Regulation 2020.
City Taskforce work streams update 
City of Newcastle received $4.2 million in applications to its Industry Response Program, offering targeted grants to businesses, groups and organisations representing those industries hardest hit by COVID-19. A funding pool of $500,000 was made available by the City of Newcastle, with the successful applicants from a wide cross-section of the community – including live music, small business, tourism and the arts – to be announced in the coming weeks.
Engagement with the local evidence base working group continues to provide valuable, granular insights specific to the region, with representatives from the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health, Regional NSW, NIB and the City of Newcastle in the areas of research, innovation and data science.
The region’s youth unemployment rate remains a concern, affecting more than one in four young people. The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to have a generational impact on this cohort in terms of skills and employment gaps. This City Taskforce work stream has seen the establishment of a working group with representatives of Hunter Young Professionals, Youth Council, Hunter Regional Employment Facilitator, Community Disability Alliance Hunter and the arts and tourism sectors. Together they will look at creative ways of tackling the youth unemployment challenge.
Vale Matthew Morris, former Charlestown MP 
Taskforce members acknowledged the passing of former State Member for Charlestown, Matthew Morris, who sadly died of brain cancer. Mr Morris, 51, served two terms as the Member for Charlestown, elected in 2003 and again in 2007, and while he was a private person after he left office, his contribution to the community is his legacy.

A man has been charged as part of investigations into the death of another man at a rubbish tip at Cessnock.
Emergency services were called to the waste management facility on Old Maitland Road just after 5pm on Sunday (5 July 2020), after a 54-year-old man was found critically injured. He died at the scene.
Officers from Hunter Valley Police District attended and established a crime scene which was examined by specialist forensic officers.
Local detectives, assisted by the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad, established Strike Force Nargal to investigate the circumstances surrounding the man’s death which is being treated as suspicious.
Following extensive inquiries, strike force detectives executed a crime scene warrant at a property at Lovedale just before 10.30am today (Wednesday 8 July 2020), where they seized a Toyota Landcruiser.
A 30-year-old man was arrested at the property and taken to Cessnock Police Station.
Shortly after, investigators executed a search warrant at a home at Aberdare, where a number of items were seized.
The man was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death-driver manner dangerous, negligent driving (occasioning death), fail to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death and driver not disclose identity of driver/passenger as required.
Police will allege in court that the man was driving the Toyota Landcruiser when he struck the 54-year-old – who is known to him – at the waste facility.
The Aberdare man was refused bail to appear at Maitland Local Court tomorrow (Thursday 9 July 2020).
Inquiries are continuing.

The first ever driverless vehicle to mix with traffic on Newcastle’s roads has started ferrying passengers along Wharf Road as part of a three-month trial.
Novocastrians and visitors to the city can now ride the free shuttle service between the Watt Street and Nobbys Beach roundabouts on weekdays between 10am and 2pm.
Running at a speed of just 20km/hr, the vehicle uses an array of sophisticated technology, including 360-degree cameras and input sensors, to avoid cars and objects.
The operation is overseen by an onboard chaperone – a local bus driver who is greeting passengers and answering questions after undergoing training to control the vehicle via a control pad should any issues arise.
^{Deputy Lord Mayor Declan Clausen at today’s launch.}
Newcastle’s Deputy Lord Mayor, Declan Clausen, welcomed the first passengers this morning as they ushered in the pilot project.
“I’m delighted to see the trial underway and people riding the city’s first driverless vehicle,” Councillor Clausen said.
“This is another milestone in Newcastle’s smart city journey as we trial the future of automated transport as part of the city’s ‘living lab’ experiment. With the help of Federal Government funding, the project will assess driverless vehicles in mixed traffic conditions and the role they can play in multimodal transport systems.
“Tourists will now be to be able to take in our magnificent harbour and foreshore and return home telling people they were among the first passengers in Australia on a shuttle with nobody at the wheel, or with no steering wheel at all in fact.”
COVID-19 has limited the number of passengers who can ride the shuttle to three at a time; and surface cleaning is being carried out across the day to keep everyone safe.
^{On the road.}
One of the first passengers to ride, Tania Papasotiriou, was pleasantly surprised by the experience.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “I was expecting it to be more bumpy or more slow but it was great, the sensors worked perfectly and it was very smooth and the space is very comfortable inside.
“I’m hoping the community embrace this technology and then we can have more of them in the streets.”
Shuttle operator Keolis Downer invited other Novocastrians to take part in the trial by boarding on Wharf Road just east of the Watt Street roundabout or at Nobbys Beach.
“We encourage Novocastrians to come to Wharf Road and take a ride to experience the future of transportation using this technology,” Keolis Downer Hunter General Manager Mark Dunlop said.
“It’s only a short walk from the light rail on Scott Street and frequent bus services to Customs House.
“We are very interested in the public perception around this technology and will be asking for further feedback after receiving a large number of responses to a survey last November when the shuttle was on show during the Newcastle 500.
“Passengers can be assured of the safety of the vehicle and the training of our onboard chaperones who have additional qualifications to their skills as bus drivers.”
The shuttle completed rigorous safety planning and testing before approval was given to operate on public roads.
The trial is being funded through a $5 million grant awarded to the City under the Federal Government’s Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.
Find out more or take part in a survey at http://newcastlesdriverlessshuttle.com.au
Tech enticed bus driver to chaperone shuttle
State-of-the-art automation technology on the City’s new driverless shuttle prompted Keolis Downer bus driver Glenn Matthews to put his hand up to become a Chaperone.
To upskill for his pioneering career change over the next three months, Glenn and colleagues undertook specialist training in Sydney and at the Hamilton bus depot before applying their newfound knowledge on the shuttle’s Wharf Road loop.

^{Glenn Mathews (right) with a trainer from the company that made the driverless shuttle.}
“It looked like a great project to be a part of and I was interested to see how this tech could be utilised in the transport industry,” said the bus driver of two years.
“Driving a bus and monitoring the driverless shuttle in autonomous mode is very similar in the fact that you need to have situational awareness of other road users at all times.
“The only difference is the steering wheel.
“It has been exciting to learn a new technology and learn how it interacts with pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
“It’s been fantastic to be a part of this project and I can’t wait to have customers on board.”

City of Newcastle is ready to welcome families back to some of its recently reopened facilities these school holidays while providing a range of online opportunities to be creative, experiment with science, or make something memorable.
With COVID-19 restrictions still affecting regular school holiday programming, the City’s cultural venues are getting creative to deliver a digital-led calendar of events sure to keep the kids busy.
These activities will complement the growing list of places reopening their doors to the public, with families also invited to get out and about – from a safe distance – and visit some of their favourite Newcastle destinations including Blackbutt Reserve, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle Museum and our Libraries.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the creativity of City of Newcastle’s dedicated staff would ensure families had plenty of options to keep themselves entertained.
“It’s been wonderful to welcome the public back into many of our much-loved facilities in recent weeks, with our art gallery, museum, and a number of library branches now open across the local government area,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Fort Scratchley has reopened for visitors, while Novocastrians can once again enjoy getting back to nature with our ever-popular walking trails, open spaces and animal attractions at Blackbutt Reserve.
“The reopened spaces have all adapted their operations in line with COVID-19 restrictions to protect the health and wellbeing of our visitors and staff, and we look forward to families making the most of these venues during the school holidays.
“We’re also offering a range of interactive online experiences which will provide children with plenty of options for home-based fun.
“From live-streamed science experiments and webinar-facilitated art workshops, to digital art classes and an exciting online youth music concert featuring rising local stars, the variety of free events and activities includes something for all interests.”
While entry to the art gallery and museum is free, online bookings for the scheduled daily sessions at each venue are essential to assist in managing numbers in line with our COVID Safe plans.
Families can find their perfect balance of school holidays inspiration at www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/School-Holidays, with information about all our face-to-face and digital activities now available.